Fleur van der Weel (1970) is a graphic designer and illustrator who completed her training at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht. Today she produces books, illustrations, animations and apps. Almost all of her work is aimed at children. As a child she liked to draw and read books – ideally with lots of pictures. So when she herself illustrates a book, she always tries to include a drawing on every page.

As her first book project, she did the illustration and design for Edward van de Vendel’s poems about Superguppie [Superguppy] for which she received an honourable mention in the form of a Vlag en Wimpel award in 2004. In the same year she and Edward van de Vendel were the joint winners of the Woutertje Pieterse Award for the best children's literature book. She and Edward van de Vendel also published the picture book Hallo [Hello] for Dutch Children’s Book Week 2012. Her app (te) gekke dierentuin [(Totally) Crazy Zoo] (3+) won the Media Ukkie Award 2013.

Rather than confining herself to a single technique, Fleur prefers to experiment. She did the black and white illustrations for Superguppie with a dip pen, brush and ink. The illustrations for Bibi’s doodgewone dierenboek [Bibi’s Everyday Animal Book] (nominated for the Jan Wolkers Award 2014) were the product of a self-devised technique that she calls the ‘Zeeland scratch technique’, with drawings done on a painted glass plate that serves as a kind of scraperboard. When working on Hallo she created different textures on paper with paint and glass plate. Then cut shapes out of the different textures to create her illustrations. The series of board books about Piep were illustrated with a combination of techniques. Her latest book, Piep wil oversteken [Piep wants to cross the road], has been selected as a Top Ten Picture Book for the Dutch National Read-Aloud Days 2015.
Fleur van der Weel is a huge fan of Dick Bruna’s work. She has a large collection of Zwarte Beertjes paperbacks. ‘Not because of the novels, but because of Dick Bruna’s wonderful book cover designs. The clean lines, clear shapes and the use of black and white are inspiring. So Miffy gets a big kiss from me – or rather from Superguppie.’ The title of her statue is Superguppie xx nijntje [Superguppy xx Miffy].